S/O Off the Grid/ Homesteading... Do you think you could live in a post apocalyptic world with no technology?

[luuknam]

Yep, I think we could survive. I would prefer to be able to stay in my house over living in our tents, though, if ya'll can arrange that for me. :D

 

Sure thing!

[Bluegoat]

Nope.  I wouldn't have trouble with stuff like no TV or phone.  The climate here makes it difficult to grow stuff and it would be impossible for us to grow enough to sustain us throughout the year.  I also live in a city with no yard.  But then stuff is so spread out and dependent upon transportation that would also be a major difficulty.   The only animals are squirrels and tiny birds.  So nothing to hunt.  Unless we started eating human.  But ewww I don't want to eat human.

 

But if stuff is all spread out, there must be land besides what is in your yard.

 

I figure in a real meltdown, the park across the street from me and the big lawn at the school up the road, etc. are very quickly going to be used for agriculture of some kind.  There might even be a fair bit of people tearing up parking lots. 

[Entropymama]

At first I thought we'd all die, but then I remembered DH used to camp as a teenager - the hike in and use what you carry kind of camping. So I guess he must have some knowledge. My parents were hippies who gardened and composted and bought eggs from farmers before it was cool, but I only have rudimentary gardening skills. Part of the problem is that we now live in a part of the country we didn't grow up in, so very little of the plant life here is familiar. If we were back in the PNW we might be okay. 

 

Yes. For a period of time, we could survive by eating dandelion roots from our yard.

 

:iagree:  :lol: Well, we do have those!

[Orthodox6]

One does what one must.

[Seasider]

One good thing about an EMP is that it would leave our libraries largely intact, so the information on how to relearn the traditional ways would be accessible.

 

I believe my immediate family would be okay, though one of my kids might say s/he'd rather just lay down and die. None of us have a dire reliance on pharmaceuticals or medical equipment (not at the present, anyway).

 

However, we would be responsible for some extended family members who are medicine-reliant who would be challenging to shepherd through such an event.

[Seasider]

But if stuff is all spread out, there must be land besides what is in your yard.

 

I figure in a real meltdown, the park across the street from me and the big lawn at the school up the road, etc. are very quickly going to be used for agriculture of some kind. There might even be a fair bit of people tearing up parking lots.

Yes, last year I read a novel about this scenario that had me scoping out the front lawn and other neighborhood green spaces. Just in case, y'know.

[FarmingMomma]

Well, I have milk cows, chickens and ducks, beef cattle, a large veggie garden, and lots of berries (fruit trees too, but they're new, so not producing yet).  We have the ability and equipment to convert the well to hand-pump.  I don't have a woodstove (not a lot of excess wood on the prairie), but we've discussed putting in a corn stove, and I do know how to cook outside with cow chips (like the pioneers did with buffalo chips).  I would have to can a lot of meat...right now I can tons of fruits and veggies but freeze all our beef.  The real challenge would be protecting all of that from less prepared people.  We have plenty of "firepower" to do so, but it is a fairly large area to protect. 

 

Something to keep in mind for those that say the know how to garden, but don't currently...it takes time for a garden to grow, and failures of at least some of your crop is common even for experienced gardeners.  Hopefully you have plenty of food put up to eat while you wait for your garden to produce :)

[Ravin]

I think it would happen, at least in this country, because of our overconsumption of meat and the fact that most people don't know how to garden or forage. We're used to a lot of protein, and that will be the easiest way for most people to get it.

 

I really don't think civilization is going to collapse, though. There would have to be complete worldwide destruction. Otherwise, if it was just our country, we'd limp along with assistance from other countries until we could get our basic infrastructure up and running again. And if there was something that could take out the entire world and collapse civilization, such as a virus, the small population that was left could subsist on the remaining resources for years. Plenty of time for people to figure out gardening and all that stuff.just

 

I just can't imagine a scenario where there would be a worldwide catastrophe that would permanently destroy infrastructure on a global scale, while also leaving the population intact to the point that there wouldn't be enough resources for the near future.

"Dies the Fire" by S.M. Stirling.

[Ravin]

I know we'd be fine in Southern, Midwestern, or Eastern climates, because my dad went out of his way to teach survival skills and DH is an engineer who grew up in the country. He might not know as much about things like gardening or building fish traps as I do, but he's smart and a hard worker. I'm terrified of being in a desert when that type of thing happens though- I wouldn't know how to find enough water or which plants are edible and I'd be afraid of catching rabbit, squirrels, or other small game because of things like plague.

 

Taking a desert survival course is on my someday list.

Exclude the organs and boil The meat of just about any critter for 20 minutes and you'll kill all the germs. Even rats.

[Jean in Newcastle]

 

 

Something to keep in mind for those that say the know how to garden, but don't currently...it takes time for a garden to grow, and failures of at least some of your crop is common even for experienced gardeners.  Hopefully you have plenty of food put up to eat while you wait for your garden to produce :)

Most of us do have food "put up" - it's called canned food!  

[Guest]

Exclude the organs and boil The meat of just about any critter for 20 minutes and you'll kill all the germs. Even rats.

When I was 6, I lived in a tiny village in central Africa. When we would make the trek into a larger village, we would buy meat - the kind that was just hanging in the sunshine attracting flies and who knows what else. When we brought it home, it would be boiled and boiled some more. We never got sick.

[Tanaqui]

Depends. Do I have to be a self-sufficient farmer or forager to survive, or am I allowed to be a brewer or a lighthouse keeper or a teacher  or an herbalist and thus trade my skillset for practical goods?

 

If I have to survive the apocalypse on my own... nah, no way. If I have to survive it by banding together with my family, including my useful-but-annoying ex-brother-in-law... maybe. If I don't kill him first. (Hey, what's the point of an apocalypse if you can't go down your little list and whack the people who irritate you, like the guy down the block who throws wild parties every Friday night until 4am or the one three blocks away who beats her dog? But then, he'd probably get me first. The whole point of hanging with ex-BIL after the end is that he's got mad survival skills. Hm.) If I can be part of a *community* - well, then, that's the best chance - for me and everybody.

 

But practically speaking, not every person alive today would survive the end of the world. No matter how prepared and skilled they are, people would die from the massive infrastructure collapse, because there really isn't enough land for everybody to be substinence farmers.

[The Girls' Mom]

Actually those squirrels and rabbits are probably "cleaner" meat than the stuff you buy at the store :)  Not that I currently eat them, but I wouldn't bat an eye at it if I had to eat them to live.

[Katy]

I'm sure you're right about the squirrels, I just heard a story once about someone on a canyon survival course who caught a squirrel, got the plague, and died.  It was in NOLS or something like that.  Of course these days doctors are aware of plague in those areas of the country, and until the apocalypse there are antibiotics available, but I've been scared of the plague ever since I heard that story (probably ten years ago).

 

ETA:  I would like the responses to my comments, but I'm out of likes for the day.

[melmichigan]

My DH and the kids would be fine.  I'm dependent on big pharma, so without it I'd be dead within a given time frame.

[Ravin]

I would be less healthy and somewhat miserable without pharma, but it likely wouldn't kill me. Ditto my other family members.

[Bluegoat]

i have eaten squirrel, though we don't have plague here so that wasn't a worry.  It was tasty.

[Shellydon]

Yep. Rural upbringing, current possession of all things needed to do so.  We garden, there are a ton of deer in our area, so easy food.  Clean water would be the biggest obstacle. 

[Saddlemomma]

I think we would do okay.  We've lived in some pretty remote places and have had to be prepared for long power outages in the past.

 

In our present location of rural northern ME, we live on a 50-acre farm.  We have chickens for eggs, 3 large 40'X60' garden plots which supply our veggies every year through freezing, canning, and drying.  I have a bank of seeds readily available and which I resupply each year.  I start seeds in the house first, then transfer them to our 24'x12' greenhouse during May, and plant them in the garden mid-June. We also have rhubarb, asparagus, apple, pear, plum and cherry trees; raspberry, strawberry, cranberry, arctic kiwi, and grape bushes and vines that are producing.  We make maple syrup each year using DH's homemade barrel stove outside.  We also have a brick & stone oven/grill station that was built for us outside so we can cook there if necessary, along with our huge cast iron wood cook-stove we got for free last year (this will be placed in our basement this year). 

 

Currently we are toying with the idea of growing our own grain in a 100'x100' plot, hand harvest and mill it to see how that goes.  Garlic is something else we are going to try in the fall. Another thought we are bouncing around is getting goats.  DH is allergic to beef and we're thinking about an alternate and sustainable source of meat.  We routinely get a pig we slaughter and butcher ourselves every other year.  DH is a prolific fisherman and hunter of geese and rabbits. We have a freezer full of them right now -- along with the pigs and 1/4 side of beef for DD and me.  I can also hunt if necessary (as I used to) and am familiar with rifles and handguns.  DD has also been taught how to use a .22 rifle and handgun as well.  She has also had a summer of outdoor survival training, and we all have survival packs we take with us when out hiking or camping.

 

For heat, we primarily use our woodstove, with oil backup, which could be used as a cooking surface as well.  Although we have a well and well pump, a few years ago we purchased and installed a Bison hand pump which is directly attached to our water pump in the basement.  Now, when the electricity goes off, all we have to do is attach a hose to the Bison pump, run it upstairs, and we have all the water we could ever want.  However, just the other day we decided to take my black, 80 gal. water tub I used to use for my horses (no longer have horses) and place it under the eves of our huge barn to catch water runoff for my greenhouse.  We can run a hose from the tank down to the greenhouse and water the plants from that. 

 

We do have a generator for emergencies and a 35hp tractor with a lot of helpful implements but they won't help us once gas runs out, so we have a lot of hand tools like scythes, sickles, axes, cross-cut saws, iron bar, post-hole digger, chisels, mallets, sledge hammer, etc.  We go to flea markets and lawn sales every summer to look for hand tools we don't have to add to our collection (DH loves these kinds of things). 

 

DD's choice for science next year will also help us in a potential apocalyptic scenario. She wants to learn about plant/herbal medicine.  We already have our herbs growing and are foraging for medicinal plants to dry so we can create tinctures, creams, teas, etc., and experiment with them. 

 

Thankfully, I'm married to an engineer who can basically look at something, figure out how to build it, and produce it for us.  He's very handy and likes to tinker with things.  If we need something, he can usually fabricate it.  He loves woodworking and just recently made a beautiful cider press so we can make cider from our apples this year at a fraction of the cost to buy one.  He's also made all my wooden spoons and most of the tables in our house.

 

The only other thing I would like to get is a small solar array to to power our laptops and kindles.  Most of our homeschooling stuff is in PDF form or ebooks.  I would like to be able to still access them if we lost power.  I'm looking at some of the ones available on Amazon.  Just have to save up some money and not keep spending it on curricula!

 

One more thing to add - we subscribe to Countryside magazine; the only magazine we subscribe to.  It's fantastic as a homesteading resource.